The Iowa Caucus results, which were meant to be made public on Monday evening (or Tuesday morning, at the very latest), were delayed due to errors created by a faulty app that was meant to make reporting the numbers easier.
No results were published on Monday, and on Tuesday, only three-fifths of the caucus results were made available. As of Thursday morning, the complete results are still not reported, as 97 percent of the totals have been received, according to the New York Times.
Although the app is largely to blame, delays were compounded by the fact that supporters of President Donald Trump repeatedly called into the Democratic caucus hotline, one party leader claims.
Ken Sagar, a state Democratic Party committee member, told reporters on a conference call Wednesday night that the hotline was inundated with Trump backers calling in to express their support for the president, Bloomberg reported.
BREAKING: Supporters of Donald Trump flooded a hotline used by Iowa precinct chairs to report Democratic caucus results after the telephone number was posted online, worsening delays in reporting the statewide tally.#IowaCaucuses https://t.co/G8sjL11Kyq
— Jon Cooper 🇺🇸 (@joncoopertweets) February 6, 2020
The phone number for reporting the caucus results became public after paperwork was posted online on social media, he said. Though not the main driver of delays, the calls from Trump supporters did interfere with efforts to get as much of the results made public as possible, Sagar added.
With a small number of precincts still left to be reported, the race is still too close to call at this time, with Sen. Bernie Sanders and Mayor Pete Buttigieg in a virtual tie. In third place is Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and coming in fourth is former Vice President Joe Biden.
The next nominating contest is set to take place in New Hampshire, on this coming Tuesday.